Is the S3 my next buy ? need your advice

[Chaemono]

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Am 27.8.2020 um 10:59 schrieb Stuart Richardson:

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I have only had the camera for a week or two and Leica has yet to comment on my problems (put shortly, banding in the shadows even at ISO 100 when the file is pushed around a lot, and banding from ISO 6400/12500,

Here's a screenshot of an S3 ISO 6400 file pushed and pulled all the way. How much banding do you see?

A link to download the DNG can be found in #207 here: https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/307652-lets-have-a-look-at-some-dng-files-from-the-s3/page/11/?tab=comments#comment-4019356

As shot

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Pushed and pulled

[Stuart Richardson]

Hi Chaemono. I do not see any banding in your image, at least not anything significant. I am still doing tests on mine, and I found one thing that I was doing exacerbated the issue, but changing it has improved the image, but not eliminated the issue. I do not like the colors of the stock Abode Color profile...I find them vaguely unnatural. I have been using the Leica S3 Color profile, along with a custom profile I made. Those profiles give better color to my eye, but in high ISO images or when pushed, they show more visible noise and color contamination. The Adobe Color profile in particular seems to be desaturating the shadow detail in the high ISO images. This leads the images to look better at the extremes of ISO. My issue has been that high ISO images look worse than the SL2, despite it being a bigger, lower density sensor, and my low ISO files show banding when shadows are aggressively recovered. I do not mind grain, but dead pixels and banding are problematic.

For reference, these are two photos, one from my S3 (left) and one from my SL2 (right). Both at ISO 50000 with the same noise and sharpening settings. The Leica S3 color profile at left, and Leica SL2 embedded at right. Both shot in the same light and letting the camera autoexpose. The biggest issue for me is the streakiness, but also the overall color quality. Normalizing the white balance does not mitigate the issue.

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Edited September 4, 2020 by Stuart Richardson

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[Stuart Richardson]

P.S. I know that ISO 50.000 is not a normal usable ISO setting (though to my astonishment, I think it is in the SL2...), but I put the cameras at that ISO so that the underlying differences are clearer. The issues clearly visible at ISO 50000 are visible at lower settings, either more subtly or when the files are edited. If the white balance bothers you all, here is another version.

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Edited September 4, 2020 by Stuart Richardson

[Chaemono]

I see your point. I have the X1D II. I’ll post some ISO 50000 pictures with that so we can see if it does better. 

[Chaemono]

I really don't see what your issue is. The X1D II only goes to ISO 25600 and the files are kind of crap there not because AWB by the camera, obviously, but because as soon as one starts to pull back the highlights one gets this this over the top HDR look.

S3 + 70 Summarit-S as shot with AWB, Sharpening +40, NR +25 in LR

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ISO 25000 f/4 @1/180 sec.

X1D II + XCD 80/1.9 as shot with AWB, Sharpening +40, NR +25 in LR

I

ISO 25600 f/4 @1/180 sec.

S3 + 70 Summarit-S as shot with AWB, Sharpening +40, NR +25 in LR

ISO 25000 f/4 @1/250 sec.

[Chaemono]

And here are two ISO 6400 pictures, 1/90 sec. was the lowest I could go with the XCD 80/1.9 handheld, with the RAW file download links.

X1D II + XCD 80/1.90 as shot RAW file download here: https://cc2032.zenfolio.com/img/g23438524-o750076470.dat?dl=2&tk=q4RNBPvGC66HOb8iR4Jdp94NhYuzg_jjtN_q4ZZm480=

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ISO 6400 f/4 @1/90 sec.

S3 + 70 Summarit-S as shot DNG file download here: https://cc2032.zenfolio.com/img/g55718935-o750076470.dat?dl=2&tk=BTWGm117g9ukHDMWivNtXFcPbZAzzReI4U0xzTZoOjk=

IS0 6400 f/4 @1/125 sec.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Chaemono

[Chaemono]

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Now the S3 picture above processed in Topaz DeNoise AI.

Edit - focus point is on the little people.

Less compressed JPEG here: https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-cMqxXt/

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Edited September 5, 2020 by Chaemono